Juicing, according to many raw food teachers, is an incredible practice that allows for the true power of raw food to be noticed quickly. You obtain all of the incredible mineral content in green vegetables, for example, without having to digest the fiber. This allows you to have a powerful "supplement" of energy, clarity, and overall nutrition without having to digest much of the "bulk" of vegetables and fruit. Though fiber is beneficial in some ways, it can prolong digestion which for some people is not particularly needed at times. When you want more immediate healing and energy, juices allow you to extract the power of raw vegetables and fruits with less effort.

Though juicing is incredible and delivers nutrition in a fast and efficient way, there are other ways to get similar benefits. As suggested, one of the main benefits of juicing is digestibility. Having to digest tremendous amounts of fiber can be difficult for some people. Having a salad is one thing, but having to digest pounds of vegetables at one sitting is another. Juicing, for many, allows this because the "digestive hold up" is removed leaving just the nutrient dense "water" or juice of the vegetable. This lets you take in far more nutrition at one time. With this understanding, using a blender can allow some of the same benefits. When we blend vegetables or fruit, especially in a high speed blender, we increase the ability to extract nutrients from it as well as digest it more easily. Liquifying our food, for the most part, makes it easier to utilize. When we eat raw vegetables for example, we liquify it through our chewing. This, however, is not always the case. Some of it might not be chewed completely, which leaves some of the cell walls of the vegetable unbroken. As a result, less nutrition is exposed as it is exited as fiber. When we blend, or chew our food really well, we increase the nutrient availability of the food and also make digestion easier. In this way, we don't have the same texture of "harsh" fiber moving around in our stomach. It is broken down into a much smaller and easier to digest state. This makes consuming high amounts of green vegetables a lot easier even though they have a lot of fiber that can sometimes be difficult to digest. Blending, especially if you don't have a juicer or don't want to deal with cleaning it, can make a big difference in what you extract from the food you eat and how easy it is to digest.

Still, interestingly, many health educators recommend "chewing" juices and smoothies to ensure it is digested well. This is opposed to just drinking it quickly like water. Using a high speed blender, though, can turn blended drinks into juice like consistency even though it contains all the fiber. You can still strain out the fiber if you want to obtain the "fiber-free" aspect of juicing.

Feeling well is very important to health. When we feel well, our outlook is often more health-oriented. This allows us to further our health promoting decisions. When we continuously feel down, however, our will and determination can decrease. This can lead to excessive eating and other unwanted behaviors that can degrade health over-time. This article will show you some ways that you can quickly reverse this trend and start feeling well from the inside out. With this standpoint, staying on track with your health goals becomes much easier. Let's get started.

Our feeling state, to a big degree, can determine our level of will power with any diet or health strategy. We do not need to be feeling down in order to become more vibrant, or lose weight etc. We can start feeling great today, even before we reach our goals. This will likely actually help us to reach them faster.

With regard to feeling well and using that as a mechanism for achieving even better health, we can turn to food. Though food can sometimes be used as a distraction, certain foods can actually aid us in becoming more aware and in tune with reality and increase our focus on things that are productive.

Of all these foods, one of them that seems to have some of the most notable properties is cacao. This is the original name of the nut (called a bean) that chocolate comes from. This, and all high-quality chocolate foods, can be very powerful for offsetting feelings of doubt and apathy. It is a food that can truly promote feelings of vitality and often does this very quickly. With regard to this, raw chocolate or raw cacao contains the highest and purest feel-good attributes of all forms of chocolate. This, however, is a general statement as some forms of raw cacao are not of very high quality and do not react well with certain people. In that case, traditional dark chocolate might actually be a better choice. Still, high quality raw cacao (usually heirloom varieties) that tastes somewhat like dark chocolate without strong or excessive off-tasting flavors (this can be an indication of quality and overall nutrition), is very nutritious and is an incredibly pure and true from of chocolate. This food, when eaten along with a strong motivation to feel well and increase your own health can be a very useful aid. It can inspire dreams and ideas of hope which will encourage you to deal with potential setbacks.

While not wanting to use this article to detail chocolate's nutritional profile, it has an outstanding list of factors which influence our feeling state. Particularly, it contains very high amounts of the mineral magnesium which is often deficient in many people's diets and is a very calming and centering mineral. It also contains PEA, which is known to create feelings of well-being as well as the endorphin anandamide which is also associated with feelings of well-being. Furthermore, chocolate contains MAO inhibitors which increase the amount of time that dopamine and other feel-good neurotransmitters can flow before getting recycled. Beyond that, chocolate might be the highest known source of anti-oxidents out of all commonly eaten foods. This isn't usually directly related to well-being, but stress can result in the increased need for anti-oxidents. Oxidative stress, for some people, might induce overall stress.

Chocolate can be incredible for this purpose, however, if you are just supplementing with foods to feel well without using them to define an empowering direction for yourself, they might only give short term benefits. The key is utilizing them, in part, to increase your sense of empowerment that can be used to further your own success.

Here is a useful equation: Drive + Direction = Destination

In this case, a lack of drive can be remedied by certain foods. Chocolate, for many people, is one of these foods. Use them to increase your overall drive and then regain your direction that you have determined to be correct for yourself. Your drive will help you to stay with it.

Chocolate and other powerful foods or herbs can help to uphold you during perceived setbacks. Where many people give up or faulter after they feel they went offtrack, some decide to find another way back on or change directions to a more useful destination. One of the critical aspects that set these people apart is drive. From a physical and even emotional standpoint, the right foods and herbs can support you in this area and allow you to remain elevated. This elevated, yet clear, standpoint let's you be more observant of potential opportunities. From there, your path becomes illuminated.

Here are some other potentially helpful foods and tonic herbs:

Goji Berries - Benefits the liver, kidney's and adrenals. These are all connected to drive and decisiveness. The goji berry is also known as "the happy berry". This quality can increase your ability to stay hopeful and allowing when encountering setbacks.

Astragalus - Increases overall energy or chi. This has an effect on overall health and vitality. Astragalus is also connected to adrenal health. These qualities can increase motivation and feelings of well-being.

Reishi Mushroom - Increases feelings of well-being. Benefits the liver. Reishi is known to be a powerful immune tonic and promote nervous system and neurological health.

Asparigus Root - Increases feelings of well-being. Known to be a lung tonic. Helpful for releasing stress.

These are just some of the many powerful tonic herbs and foods that can promote overall well-being. Find one's that work well with you.

Whenever we feel like we need more energy, a lot of the time we just want a greater sense of drive and inspiration. If we're inspired and motivated, we can derive energy from almost nothing. When we're not quite as enthused, however, our focus might turn to coffee or other things that might stimulate us to some extent so that we can finish whatever we feel we need to do. Here are some ways to increase our natural feeling state of inspiration and drive so that we can propel ourselves forward while also increasing health.

Tonic Herbs

Tonic herbs are probably the quickest way to increase feelings of drive and ambition, especially in someone who feels "burnt-out". While there are other "thought-based" ways to feel more inspired, this is something you can try without having to necessarily "think your way" to success. They help to naturally bring in more inspired states of energy, which allows you to think more creatively and hopeful, without having to "swim upstream" so much by trying to think differently.

With regard to tonic herbs, many of them can be helpful. This article will focus on a few of them that work in different ways.

Jing Tonics

For drive and ambition, certain Jing tonics can really help. This is because they increase your deep energy reservoir known as Jing. This is essentially the core energy that you are born with but can be depleted through excessive stress. Jing is associated with the adrenals and kidney's as well as the reproductive system. Jing tonics are often known to increase reproductive power, which can be something to take note of.

Jing is very much connected to feelings of being grounded and having willpower. When we have a lot of jing, we feel more able to go out and do what whatever it is that we want to do. For many people, increasing Jing is one of the most powerful steps they can take to reinvigorate themselves.

Chaga Mushroom - Chaga is very powerful for increasing feelings of well-being and overall motivation for many people.

Black Seseme Seed - You can buy these in many supermarkets and in health food stores.

For a more immediate energy that might be somewhat similar to the sensation of coffee or green tea, consider taking Chi Tonics. These do not stimulate or deplete, yet they give a quick sense of having significantly more energy. Chi is basically our inner energy that we use throughout the day.

Two very well-known Chi tonics are Astragalus and Ginseng. Schizandra is also a powerful Chi tonic.

The next step for increasing energy and drive is to learn how to let go via the Sedona Method. This is a very powerful technique that allows you to let go of the emotional energy that might to tiring you. When you do this, you might feel much more energized without even having to take anything for increased energy. It is a powerful way to increase your inner energy naturally. Still, just taking tonic herbs is very powerful and will likely help you to naturally release emotions without trying to.

Some very well-known herbs for helping you to feel elevated above negative emotions, so that they are more easily let go of include Reishi Mushroom, Tulsi, and Asparagus Root. These are all considered to be Shen Herbs, or spirit elevating herbs. Shen is one of the three treasures in Taoist Tonic Herbalism. The other two are Jing and Chi. All three play a powerful role in health and vitality.

Magnesium, for many people, is a powerful mineral that can increase feelings of well-being and productivity. This is because it induces calmness and relaxation while also increasing concentration and focus. Many people feel that they cannot pay attention well because of a deficiency of this mineral.

It essentially "turns on" many enzymes and detoxification functions in the body. When we don't have enough, these might not be fully operating. The result is less than optimal feelings of vitality and ability to eliminate toxins.

Magnesium can allow you to feel lighter and more free. When we go from not having enough to having higher levels of magnesium, we can feel elated and more "in the moment". Quickness of thought and the ability to rationalize and create solutions will also likely increase.

In addition, magnesium is incredibly alkaline. This means that, in terms of the Ph of our bodies, it helps to sway it toward alkalinity and overall balance. Just by adding in more magnesium rich foods or high quality magnesium supplements, we can begin to bring in this balance. The result is increased calmness and a more "zen-like" composure and outlook. Most foods that are considered to be alkaline have a good amount of magnesium. These include green leafy vegetables, certain superfoods like chlorella, spirulina, and blue-green algae, as well as raw nuts and seeds which aren't necessarily alkaline but provide a lot of magnesium. Raw cacao is very high in magnesium, as is high quality dark chocolate. Hemp seeds are also high in this mineral.

A magnesium supplement can also be incredibly effective for some people. Of these, the best are generally magnesium oil and ionic or angstrom magnesium. Magnesium oil is incredibly powerful for many people and is used topically to increase magnesium levels, which actually allows you to take in more than would be digested through other ways of supplementing. Ionic magnesium or angstrom magnesium are likely the best edible forms of magnesium supplements and much better than synthetic magnesium supplements that contain other unnecessary ingredients. Other than this, look for whole-food sourced magnesium supplements.

Research uses for magnesium oil and see if that is an appropriate addition to your lifestyle. It might be one of the most helpful tools you can use for your overall health.

Coconut Oil is known to increase weightloss for many people. It's other effects, for some people, can be even more powerful. This article will detail some of the more subtle empowerment-oriented benefits of coconut oil.

1. Coconut oil is very good for neurological health. As a clean source of saturated fat, it is very good for the brain and nervous system. While saturated fat has gotten negative reviews, especially regarding animal products, high quality saturated fat without toxins can actually improve biological functioning. Coconut Oil is not at all connected to the potentially negative effects of other saturated fat sources. In fact, it can help to reduce cholesterol in people who need it. On the contrary, for people with too low cholesterol that may be suffering from hormone related depression, coconut oil has been found to increase cholesterol to a more appropriate level. Dr. Gabriel Cousens has found this to be true and often suggests coconut oil or coconut butter to patients with this issue. Cholesterol and saturated fat is also needed for myelin sheath regeneration, as that is what it is partly composed of.

2. Coconut oil is a powerful Jing tonic. This means that it nourishes our deep inner energy that is connected to our kidney's and adrenals as well as reproductive function. It's powerful thyroid rejuvinating properties may account for some of this aspect. Coconut oil stimulates the thyroid, which, in turn, increases metabolism leading to weight loss. Coconut oil also has growth factors and other strength inducing qualities. It's medium chain triglycerides, composing much of the fat content, is used very quickly as energy rather than being stored as fat. This gives you more immediate energy and a sense of empowerment. Eating coconut oil, either by itself or mixed into other foods, can promote activity, leading to more exercise due to this energy increasing quality.

3. Coconut oil is a powerful anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial supplement. It naturally increases immunity as well as protects against many microbes that have a lipid coating. Taking coconut oil is a powerful way to increase resiliency against foreign microbes. Sometimes, just increasing immunity brings a natural inner empowerment and sense of vitality.

Here is one of the most direct and easy ways increase physical and spiritual energy within you. Doing this, especially if you've never experimented with tonic herbalism or yoga, can have profound and quick benefits to your state of well-being.

In Taoist Tonic Herbalism, Shen is a prominent energy associated with spirituality. It is one of the Three Threasures. The others are Qi (energy) and Jing (deep energy reserve associated with adrenal and kidney power). When we have a lot of Shen, we can sense a feeling of upliftment even when dealing with stressful situations. It allows us to have greater insight over it, rather than being caught up in our thoughts and negative emotions. One of the most notable Shen Tonics, which increases this energy, is Reishi Mushroom. It has been used for spiritual purposes as well as immunity and other physical benefits for centuries. This is something which increases overall health over time as well as feelings of well-being.

When you take Reishi, you are taking something that increases your ability to rise above feelings of worry and other emotions that often pull us down and keep us feeling less than vibrant. This allows us to naturally increase our ability to be present or "in the moment". Your extra energy can be channeled into whatever you are doing in the moment so that you can fully experience it and feel a sense of deep appreciation and aliveness.

In essence, Reishi is a wonderful tonic for many people and increases our natural ability to allow and release.

Yoga is also something which increases feelings of aliveness and contentment in many people. By practicing it, in whichever way you feel comfortable, you can start to obtain these benefits. The result is a calmer outlook and a greater ability to be "in the moment". This can lead to a sense of energy within you that you can direct your focus toward and be in a state of meditation without the intense will needed to "block out" thoughts. When we practice yoga or anything similar, we can be in a state of natural meditation and connection to life with little effort beyond the physical act of yoga. Eventually, this ability can grow and meditation can become second nature.

Tai Chi and Qi Gong also can help this process, much like Yoga.

When you combine taking Reishi everyday with practicing Yoga, you have a very powerful process for increasing your sense of spirit.

We all know about the mind-body connection. If our body is cluttered, how will our thoughts be? This question can make this concept more real and applicable. Here is a basic idea, that you can take action on in order to have a more clear and centered mind.

Clear Your Body, Clear Your Mind.

By clearing our body of negative emotions and physical toxicity, we become more able to tune into our inner energy. This allows us greater access to inner tranquility and clear thinking. Meditation then becomes much more doable.

How then do we become more clear inside?

One way is to practice emotional releasing. If you're new to it, check out The Sedona Method and EFT. Both offer a powerful way to release emotional tension and become clearer inside.

While this is specifically focused on emotions rather than physical toxicity, it can allow your body to be better able to detoxify as you have less inner tension that you are holding onto.

Physical Detoxification

By having a clean diet, whatever that is to you, you are adding much less toxicity than you would otherwise. Still, there are ways to remove what you might have built up which can be causing you issues.

One way is to follow a very clean diet, which could be a raw food diet. By eating a raw vegan diet, focusing on lighter or easily digestible foods which do not take away your energy, you will have more ability to detoxify naturally.

One easy way to do this is to make green smoothies a big part of your diet.

You can also add in foods and tonic herbs to increase your ability to detoxify. These include medicinal mushrooms like reishi and chaga, raw aloe vera products, algae products like spirulina, etc. Check into David Wolfe's books and video's online to learn more about superfoods and herbs that can promote this ability. Many that he recommends have incredible properties and naturally help you to detoxify.

Two products that can help you to detoxify heavy metals are zeolites and fulvic acid. This alone can increase your clarity profoundly.

Matt Monarch, of The Raw Food World, frequently talks about the power of cleansing the colon. He finds that it works incredible in combination with a raw food diet to remove toxicity quickly and allow you to feel more clarity. One way to cleanse the colon, which he is most fond of, is colon hydrotherapy. He also suggests enemas for some people as they are less expensive and can be done by yourself.

Dr. Robert Morse ND talks about the incredible power of a fruit-based raw food diet for detoxification. He finds that it allows you to cleanse more fully than other ways of eating. He also recommends certain herbs that allow you to detoxify more effectively.

Noni, the well-known superfood, is actually a powerful aid in dealing with emotional wellbeing. It is found to increase feelings of elation and overall happiness with many people that use it. While Noni has many powerful properties that likely contribute to this, one of them appears to be it's effect on neurotransmitters. Some suggest that Noni actually increases the production of GABA, which is a neurotransmitter connected to feelings of contentment. Others suggest that it might actually have powerful serotonin production qualities. Either way, it appears to have benefits toward one's sense of wellbeing.

This makes Noni an incredible food for occasional low-energy and lack of drive and enthusiasm. It might actually help people with anxiety, though that is not definitive. If it does naturally increase GABA, Noni might actually promote benefits similar to the sense of wellbeing derived from Yoga. Researchers for the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine found that Yoga appeared to increase levels of GABA, which could account for at least some of the well-being factor associated with Yoga.

Noni also has a high amount of long chain polysaccharides, which are a type of essential sugar (there are 8 known essential sugars including glucose, which is a short chain sugar). This might also account for the increase of overall feeling state that Noni appears to promote. Polysacharides are known to have powerful immmune system qualities as well as nervous system benefits. They are also sources of long term energy. This, likely, would give a noticable increase in wellbeing.

People who have low immune system issues might naturally feel less than energetic, as much of their energy can be diverted to their immune system to defend against microbes etc. By taking a product like Noni, which naturally increases immunity in a way that doesn't over-stimulate someone's immune system, they might have more energy. Noni is known to be one of the most potent products for the immune system, yet is a tonic that can be essentially taken everyday unlike more medicinal herbs like echanacea.

If you choose to try a Noni product, check out NoniLand Noni Powder. It is one of David Wolfe's incredible products that contains all of the powerful aspects of Noni in a dried form. It is essentially Noni fruit that has been fermented, dried and powdered under low-heat conditions. It can be taken in water or put into various smoothies and drinks. David Wolfe recommends, for taste purposes, to mix Noni with citrus juice or lemonaide style drinks.

Disclaimer: We are not necessarily suggesting a low sugar diet for anyone. Some people, though, have found it to be beneficial for certain issues. Others, however, have found that a fruit-based diet (which is often not low in sugar) is very powerful for detoxification and overall vitality.

Sugar is something that we require to an extent. Glucose, as well as other types of important sugars, are actually essential. Other essential sugars include polysaccharides which have powerful immune system and nervous system effects. These are often bitter, however, and do not contribute to issues related to sugar. They, rather, promote health in various ways. With that said, it is simple sugars and even some complex carbs (other than the essential sugars that have immunity effects etc.) that some people want to reduce in there diet for various reasons. Though we require glucose as a source of fuel, we don't necessarily have to consume sugary foods. We can actually metabolize it through other sources. Some people do very well eating mostly fat and protein as calorie sources without eating nearly any typical sugar sources. The fat and protein will eventually be broken down into glucose for fuel purposes. This is one way to reduce sugar intake, knowing that eating other calorie sources can turn to glucose eventually. Still, this does not entirely reduce cravings for sugar. For that, there are various strategies that actually work. Here they are:

1. Eat Fermented Foods that contain beneficial bacteria. This includes fermented vegetables such as kim chi and unpastuerized sauercraut. According to Donna Gates, who created the Body Ecology Diet, the beneficial bacteria in fermented foods helps to re-balance our digestive flora and naturally reduce cravings for sugar overtime. Well known herbalist Truth Calkins, who has followed a similar diet for many years, suggests that sour tasting foods like fermented vegebables and other raw unpastuerized fermented food sources oppose sugar cravings. Probiotics also fall into this category and can help. Another reason why they make it easier to reduce sugar intake is because beneficial bacteria naturally create serotonin and other feel-good chemicals and nutrients. When we have a lack of serotonin, we often feel like we need more sugar.

2. Eat Blue Green Algae, Spirulina, Chlorella, or Marine Phytoplankton if any of them work well with you. Blue Green Algae, in particular, has powerful neurotransmitter benefitting effects and high amounts of bio-available protein which is good for balancing brain function and blood-sugar. The other algae products also have powerful health effects and high amounts of protein. The protein in all of these can be used to create neurotransmitters like serotonin, which help to normalize our desire for sugar.3. Eat more polysaccharide - containing foods like Reishi Mushroom extract and Astragalus. These contain long chain sugars (polysaccharides), which fuel long term energy, as well as promote nervous system and immune system health. Eating these foods and herbs will likely allow you to more easily reduce other sugar sources because they increase wellbeing so effectively.

4. Do EFT on any cravings or emotional issues that contribute to eating unnecessary foods. This is a powerful process that can be learned easily and performed within minutes. Try it and see if it helps you.

Doing any of these will likely allow you to feel more emotionally and nutritionally balanced, which will translate into eating less of the foods that you don't want to eat.

If you are just becoming interested in health and nutrition or want to incorporate something into your lifestyle to give you more energy and vitality, green smoothies are likely the way to go.

This is because:

They are easy - you just blend fruit, leafy greens, and water.

They are fast - They take less than five minutes to make

They are alkaline - Alkaline is what many people are after, especially if there are health issues. Leafy greens are some of the most alkaline foods in the world and drinking a lot of them gives more of that quality to you. Alkalinity is associated with flexibility and calmness. Alkaline foods are usually those with more alkaline minerals like magnesium and calcium.

One very prominent aspect of drinking green smoothies is less cravings for other foods. Drinking highly alkaline, easily absorbed foods and juices often reduce cravings significantly because they are so energizing and give so much nutrition.

If you don't know where to start in your health journey, green smoothies are a great starting point.

To make them - Put as much greens in a blender as you want - Start with less or around a handful in the beginning - and fill up the blender with enough water to cover the greens.

(If you are using a vitamix or other similar blender you can blend all the ingredients at once without the extra step of blending the greens and then blending again after adding fruit)

Blend for around 10 seconds. Now add as much fruit as you want and blend again for another 10 to 30 seconds, until it looks completely blended.

The drink should be green but somewhat sweet tasting. If you use fruit that you like, the drink will likely taste good overall.

Many people drink around a liter a day and experience significant health benefits. For people trying to lose weight, green smoothies are a powerful tool.

For those who want more information on green smoothies check out:

Any book by Victoria Boutenko including Green For Life. She also has many youtube video's online which talk about and show how to make green smoothies.